Charlie motioned for Beth
to come toward her in the living room. She wanted to speak to her in a hushed
tone so that Mrs. Wallace couldn't hear what she was saying.

"OK, Bethie, last night I put Mr. Crane's car in the garage
and shut the door, like you said - that way it's hidden," Charlie said.
"We still need to come up with a plan for getting rid of it though - and
Sheridan's brother."

"All right, let me think about this for awhile," Beth
said. "I'll come up with something."

"Wha-What are you two whispering about over there?"
Mrs. Wallace called out.

"Listen," Charlie said to Beth, "there's something
I need right away - a gun."

"A gun!" Mrs. Wallace cried, fear rising in her voice.
"What do you want with a gun?!"

"Mother, why don't you go into the kitchen to check on
dinner? Now!" Beth ordered.

Mrs. Wallace carefully made her way toward the kitchen door
with her walker, but went as slowly as she could to pick up what was being said
between the conniving pair.

"It's too hard to control two of them without a gun,"
Charlie explained. "Blondie's not too bad, being pregnant and all. But
her brother's a different story. I don't like the looks of that guy. He doesn't
seem trustworthy, you know."

Mrs. Wallace chuckled as she headed into the kitchen. "And
you do?"

"That's it! One more word out of her, and she's in the
pit too!" Charlie exclaimed, looking at Beth.

"Mother, I told you to get going! Now do it!"

"OK, OK, I'm out of here," Mrs. Wallace said, mumbling
under her breath about how what goes around, comes around. She shut the kitchen
door behind her.

"Charlie, are you sure you need a gun?" Beth asked.
"I've never liked guns."

"It's necessary," Charlie said, "for your safety
- and mine."

"OK, well, why don't you go to a gun shop tomorrow and
get one?" Beth suggested.

"See, I can't do that," Charlie said. "They have
some useless law now that says you have to have a background check to get one.
That means I'm out."

"Sheridan, did you find out the baby was Luis's? I mean,
I don't want to hurt you, but I thought you didn't know if it was his or his
brother Antonio's."

"Oh, I know now that Luis is the father of my baby,"
Sheridan said. "I just feel it. When you have a connection like we do,
between two people who are deeply in love, you just know things - like Luis
knew that I didn't run away. You probably wouldn't understand. Most people don't."

"No, probably not," he said wistfully, his eyes fixed
on the ground. Then changing the subject, he said, "I think we need to
tell each other everything we know so far about these kidnappers. We need to
put all our cards on the table, so to speak. Maybe we can come up with something."

Sheridan nodded. "I already told you there are at least
two of them - the large woman who you've seen, plus another woman, more normal
size. Both were wearing clown masks."

"Hmmm..." Sheridan pondered the idea. "Maybe
that's it. Maybe I know her from somewhere! Julian, we could be onto something!"

"When did you see this silent woman?" Julian asked.
"How many times?"

"Only once. It kind of seemed like she was in charge. The
other one - the big one - kept going over and whispering to her, as if she was
asking her advice or something."

"So the other woman, the small one, might be the boss,"
Julian said. "Interesting."

"Why so?" asked his sister, her eyes now vibrant with
excitement that her brother might be onto something.

"Well, Sheridan," Julian replied, "kidnappings
where women are in charge - where women are the only ones involved - are very
rare. This just doesn't seem like a normal kidnapping. You heard what they said
- that I'm expendable. I'm a billionaire, for God's sake, but they didn't ask
for a ransom," he said slowly. "And they didn't ask for a ransom for
you either, Sheridan. They're not after money."

"Then what could they be after?" Sheridan asked, her
voice becoming alarmed. "What could they possibly want from me if not money?"

"That seems to be the question of the day," Julian
said softly. To himself, he wondered, "My God, what could they be after?"

Julian didn't let Sheridan see his worry. "We'll figure
something out, Sheridan. You and me together..." he started to say, and
then stopped.

"You and me together what?" she asked.

"I was going to say, you and me together can't be beat,"
he said softly. "That's what Mother used to say when you were really little,
do you remember?"

Sheridan shook her head sadly. "I can't remember much about
our mother - except what she looked like, and how sweet she was - how much she
loved me."

"Oh, she loved you," Julian said, "so much. She
used to tell us that apart, bad things could possibly happen to us, but together,
we couldn't be beat."

"I never knew that," Sheridan said, smiling warmly.

"I just hope our mother was right," Julian thought
to himself. "God, how I hope she was right about that..."